1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the general art of fishing, and to the particular field of hooks and lures.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Fishing is an extremely popular sport and pastime. As such, and due to its increasing popularity, the fishing art has undergone a concomitant increase in size and variety. Many problems encountered by fishermen are approached by the inventions in this varied art. Inventions directed to winding fishing line, inventions directed to night fishing, to ice fishing, to deep sea fishing and the like have been proposed.
One area of particular interest includes fishing hooks and lures. The inventions in this subclass of the fishing art are as varied as in any other area of the art. These inventions include hooks that are designed for safety, lures that are designed to attract fish, hooks that are designed to be easily retrieved and the like.
However, due to the increasing popularity of fishing, there is always a need for improvements. This includes the area of fishing hooks and lures as well.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved fishing hook.
One problem encountered by all fishermen is in properly setting a hook after a fish strikes the hook. The strike must be communicated from the hook through the line to the fishing rod and then to the fisherman. All of this takes time and then the rod must be moved to set the hook at just the right time. Even experienced fisherman often miss a fish due to this portion of the process. However, inexperienced fishermen suffer most from errors in setting the hook after a strike.
Therefore, there is a need for a fishing hook that can effectively and reliably be set after a strike.
The art contains several examples of fishing hooks that automatically set after a fish strikes. However, these known hooks are generally complex, and often contain several parts that must each work properly for the hook to be effective. Since a fish hook is used in difficult and harsh environments, the many moving and co-operating parts of known automatic fish hooks are prone to failure. This makes such automatic fish hooks unreliable, or worse, inoperative. Having an unreliable or inoperative fish hook may be worse than not having any hook at all because the fisherman will depend on the proper operation of the automatic fish hook and certainly miss a fish when the hook operates either incorrectly or not at all.
Therefore, there is a need for an automatic fish hook that is reliable.
It is a main object of the present invention to provide an improved fishing hook.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a fishing hook that can effectively and reliably be set after a strike.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an automatic fish hook that is reliable.
These, and other, objects are achieved by a fishhook which comprises a one-piece monolithic body which includes first and second legs, a barb on a distal end of each of the first and second legs, a torsion spring connecting a proximal end of the first leg to a proximal end of the second leg, the torsion spring biasing the proximal end of the first leg toward the proximal end of the second leg in an armed configuration of the one-piece monolithic body and biasing the proximal end of the first leg away from the proximal end of the second leg in a triggered configuration of the one-piece monolithic body, a notch portion in the first leg, a notch portion in the second leg, the notch portion in the first leg abutting the notch portion in the second leg when the one-piece monolithic body is in an armed configuration and being spaced apart from the notch portion in the second leg when the one-piece monolithic body is in a triggered configuration, and the barbs face away from each other and move in a common plane when the one-piece triggered configuration.
The fishhook of the present invention is a one-piece monolithic construction so it can easily resist the harsh environment in which it operates and the notches and barbs reliably operate.